


Jaded

by Puzzled



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 14:09:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6707398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puzzled/pseuds/Puzzled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shortly after the the fall of Thrawn Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker find themselves in a darker universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jaded

**Author's Note:**

> This may or may not be continued or reworked.

“Luke,” he turned back just short of the door as she stepped away from the railing, “I’ll come with you.” He smiled and Mara swept through the door ahead of him still holding Vader’s, Anakin’s saber.  
  
That’s when it all went wrong. There was an indescribably painful sensation, a screaming, twisting, wrongness in the Force. It seemed to shatter around them the universe groaning and cracking. Even the Force’s absence on Myrkr, leaving the world a dull shell, hadn’t felt as terrible, as inimicable to life. As suddenly as it started, the pain stopped and Mara shuddered and staggered, only a lifetime of training keeping her on her feet.  
  
Luke wasn’t so lucky, he was on his knees in the sand retching and she could feel his distress in the Force. She reached for her commlink, then what she was seeing registered. Sand, endless sand.  
  
“What the kriff are we doing on Tatooine?” Luke was already recovering, wiping his mouth on his sleeve as he rose unsteadily.  
  
“This isn’t Tatooine,” she didn’t need the Force to hear his certainty. “It’s missing the smell and..” He trailed off, his eyes closed as he leaned back, searching. “Its presence is different.” She hadn’t spent much time there, a month as Arica in Jabba’s palace, but as she stretched out her senses she too could feel the difference.  
  
“So where are we then?” It took a second for the more important question to come to mind. “And how did we get here? What was that?” Luke was looking around now, his eyes stopped behind her and she turned to see what he saw. A town, or a camp with a fire and around it people.  
  
“As for the first.” Luke was barely looking at her, his attention on the settlement. “No idea, just because I grew up on a ball of sand doesn’t mean I know all the others.” His head turned back to her and she could sense his attention. “The rest of it? Your guess is as good as mine. I can’t imagine Palpatine was conducting teleportation experiments on a random balcony in his palace.”  
  
“Well wherever we are and however we got here, I don’t want to be there.” He nodded in agreement and started walking down the dune with a curious half sliding stride. She watched for second before her mind filled with the practicalities. “Do you have credits or anything on you?”  
  
He kept going down the sandy hill but she felt a spike of amusement. “I’ve got my wallet, a lightsaber and a commlink with no service. As for credits, the last time I had enough credits on me to charter a ship was the time I met Han.” A few more steps of the awkward, now that she was watching more she understood the purpose. The noises of his steps seamlessly blended into that of the desert. She tried to mimic it as he turned back, his teeth flashing in the night. “Luckily you’re traveling with ‘Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker: Hero of the New Republic.’ Somebody will be a sympathizer, and if they’re not and try to betray us I won’t feel terrible about stealing their ship.”  
  
Mara smirked, Luke was far more entertaining in his natural habitat, in chaos than when he was doing his earnest best to be the perfect Jedi. The smirk vanished as one of her heels caught. The clothing she’d worn to a Coruscanti ball was not appropriate for the deserts of wherever. Luke looked comfortable, but he’d apparently decided as the sole Jedi in the galaxy he could wear whatever he wanted wherever and was simply wearing a dark shirt and pants. Her dress was calculated to turn heads and cement her image, but right now she would have murdered for her normal attire. “Well I’ve got a clutch, my holdout blaster and your Dad’s saber.” Luke had moved to catch her, even before she fell but she had recovered before he could help. “But Karrde has people everywhere. I don’t know if you’ll have to whore yourself out to your adoring public.”  
  
“Just as well.” They had at last reached the bottom of the hill and the village looked farther away as they trudged through the thick sand. Mara was weighing her options regarding her shoes, the Force would guide her to avoid stepping on anything too dangerous but she knew of at least three planet’s whose sand was razor sharp and could lead to barely treatable cancer after it penetrated the skin. Luke jerking to a halt stopped her.  
  
“What’s wrong?” She didn’t need the answer though, the Force’s warning of imminent danger reached her too. Luke was looking to the sky, tracing his gaze she saw ships coming fast and low. He started moving again, urgency in his motions before she grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. “What are you doing? We can’t fight that many!”  
  
He shook free and she could feel him drawing deeply on the Force. He straightened as his expressions receded to leave his face a serene mask. His saber was in his hand but unignited, his eyes flickering from the landers to the village. “I don’t know why we’re here, but I’m a Jedi. I have to try-” a grin flashed across his face before that serenity returned, “I will defend them.”  
  
He had launched into a lope as he finished, abandoning his weird stride for one that could only be described as implacable. Mara watched for second before swearing and kicking off her shoes. “If I get killed because of you Farmboy.”  
  
She caught up with him at a ridge just outside of the town, perhaps a hundred yards of open space to go. The landers were close, minutes out at the most, and Luke looked back to her, shining in the Force. “There’s got to be a hundred on those ships, we can’t fight them in the open.”  
  
Mara looked across the featureless plain, it would be a killbox. “Into the town then.” She was moving then, the odds were badly against them and hesitation was never part of her character. Luke joined her against a wall as she drew her blaster, her saber loosely gripped in her other hand.  
  
Sudden shouting showed that the villagers had noticed the attackers. The town erupted like a kicked anthill as men and women, all armed, ran to the edge of town as screams filled the air. Mara wanted to join them, to take control of the defences, but Luke’s grip on her arm was like iron.  
  
“We need to wait.” She broke the grip almost roughly enough to cause injury but he didn’t react. His eyes were shut as he drew on the Force, feeling through the currents of the present seeking the optimal future. She couldn’t help but feel uneasy as he did it, she was strong in the Force but all her life she’d been surrounded by titans in the Force and she could hardly count the times she’d seen Palpatine similarly seek guidance.  
  
Blasterfire filled the air, and Mara tried to leave again, this time his grip was inviolable. She could feel the deaths in the Force, a sudden shock and coldness, and then Luke was up- green fire spilling from his hand. “I’ll draw their fire, go now!”  
  
She didn’t need any further guidance, she was up and sprinting parallel to the battle line into the darkness as the Force lent her strength and speed. Luke’s appearance had shattered the attacker’s plan’s, the stormtroopers breaking cover to target him. The villagers took advantage of their distraction and Mara could feel the momentum shifting as the untrained men and woman shot from concealed positions at the stormtroopers. Luke’s blade was a wall of light, even with the Force she could barely follow it as blaster bolts were deflected back and the assault faltered.  
  
Then it was her turn, she was behind the stormtroopers skirmish lines and she didn’t need her weapons to drop the unlucky first one. Five were dead before she was noticed, she ducked behind a lander to break their line of sight before moving with a burst of enhanced speed to the next one.  
  
Its ramp was still down, with three strides and three shots she killed its crew and for a second considered hijacking it. The controls were unfamiliar, some local Imperial variant, but she was confident that she could figure it out before a scream interrupted her.  
  
“SKYWALKER!”  
  
A pulsing knot of rage and darkness filled the Force, briefly overshadowing Luke’s light before Mara was back outside looking for the threat. It was a robed figure, tall with a red lightsaber held low. Luke was hard pressed, the last troopers were peppering his location and his blocks were marginally less graceful. He’d probably be able to win without help, but Mara had never been a gambler.  
  
She charged the dark sider, her steps silent in the tumult with her saber unignited but ready to finish the fight in one blow. That wasn’t to be, he proved himself to be at least competent when he spun towards her with his blade in a high guard.  
  
Anakin’s sword snapped out and she used all her speed and momentum to deliver a crushing overhand blow. The darksider blocked it, he was strong, before trying to force a saberlock with his strange guard.  
  
Mara skipped back though, she knew better than to match strength against duelists with a foot on her, and pulled the trigger of her blaster twice. He twisted aside from the first and caught the second on his hand, no just in front of it, before he was attacking again. Two more hammering blows drove her back, the blaster fire was tapering off and she had no reason not to trade space for time. He only grew more enraged as he pressed forward, his swings growing wild as he roared.  
  
She could sense Luke approaching at a sprint, she rolled to her right to cut the dark sider off from his transport. He sensed Luke’s approach as well, his focus shifted and Mara saw her chance. She was inside his guard in an instant- launching a dizzying flurry of blows that didn’t let him marshall his strength. It only took one mistake, a block executed a heartbeat too slow that cost him his life, he fell heavily with his sabering sputtering out on the ground as the hole in his chest spat fire.  
  
All at once the clarity of battle left her. She found herself sucking down huge breaths of the cold night air. Luke was there, his blade still blazing as he looked down at the dying man. He coughed faintly, barely audible through his mask and Luke called the fallen saber to his hand.  
  
The man groaned at that and after a second of inspection Luke flung the handle in the air, a lightning quick slash leaving it in pieces scattered across the dunes.  
  
“I didn’t think you had the guts to come back old man.” His words were weak with a distinctly liquid undertone.  
  
Luke didn’t react, his entire being focused on the fallen. “Who are you?”  
  
“You know who I am Skywalker, or did you forget in your exile?” That shook him, he glanced at Mara with evident confusion.  
  
She could feel him draw on the Force again, and when he spoke again his voice was resonant, commanding. “Tell me who you are.”  
  
He shrank on himself, trying to resist as another gurgling cough rattled his frame. Luke bore down then, the force whipping around him with almost tangible force. He writhed before something in him seemed to break. “Kylo Ren.” His failed defiance was the last thing he did, Mara felt him die as he exhaled for the final time.  
  
Luke swore virulently then deactivated his saber and clipped it to his belt. Mara turned away to scan their surroundings, she’d seen too many people die by losing focus when they thought they were safe. There weren’t any living troopers, but the villagers, most wounded and all nervous, were approaching them. One man in a flight suit led them, visible awe on his face.  
  
“Who are you people?”  
  
Mara met Luke’s eyes with similar surprise, he hadn’t been joking about being famous before snorting and waving for the farmboy to make introductions.  
  
“This is Mara Jade and I,” they were hanging on his words much to Luke’s apparent dismay, “am Luke Skywalker.”  
  
“Sithspit!” The pilot seemed to speak for the crowd, they had drawn back muttering.  
  
Luke pointedly looked to his side where his saber hung and then back to the villagers. “As of quite recently, I’m sure I’m the only guy running around with a light saber claiming the name.”  
  
“You can’t be him,” Mara could feel the man’s absolute confidence as he stuttered and the crowd seemed to agree. “You just can’t be.”  
  
“Why not?” If she’d felt it Luke would have as well. Naturally he would ask about it directly.  
  
“You’re not old enough and..” He sounded almost lost and looked back at the crowd, seeking support, “and you’re here?”  
  
“Clearly.” Mara had had enough with the man. Luke had told some stories during their hyperspace jaunts and she had no desire to be caught up in some sort of bizarre Force driven adventure. “Where are we and how can we leave?”  
  
That threw him, enough that another man stepped out of the crowd to answer. “Tuanul, on Jakku.” The name meant nothing to her, Luke shook his head minutely as well. “In the Western Reaches?”  
  
That drew a reaction from Luke, he spun looking to the sky and she could feel him searching, reaching for something. He didn’t find it and for the first time she sensed a flare of his panic before he ruthlessly suppressed it.  
  
“What’s wrong?” He was moving then, crouching by the corpse of a stormtrooper. She followed as he looked at something on the pauldron, the unit codes, before checking another.  
  
“There’s at least a star destroyer in orbit.” She didn’t bother confirming it, she trusted him and with the short ranged vehicles it made sense.  
  
“We need to leave then.” He nodded, standing and cupping his hands to his mouth. When he shouted she could feel the power behind his words.  
  
“All of you get what you need and board the shuttles, you have five minutes! Any pilots come to me!” In complete contravention to her expectations the crowd did as he asked, the barest touch of the force sufficient to compel the nervous and afraid. It was uncomfortably close to what C’Baoth did but she could see the necessity. Three of the villagers stayed along with the man in the flightsuit. “Can all of you fly these?”  
  
Whatever nervousness the pilot had before vanished, the peculiar mix of arrogance and poise common to the best aces filling him. “I can fly anything.” That emboldened the others who nodded in hasty agreement. Luke looked them over once, and was if not satisfied, resigned.  
  
“There’s going to be another wave as soon as they get their act together, and it won’t be so easily beaten.” The reminder that the danger wasn’t over was enough to get them moving, scattering to the blocky landers.  
  
Luke wasn’t looking at her, his attention still on the skies, so when she grabbed him and shoved him against the lander’s wall he was completely surprised.  
  
“We can’t fight a Star Destroyer! We can’t even run from one with these!”  
  
She could feel his calmness beginning to slip, “I know that! You know that, them-” he swept an an arm sharply at the village, his left she noted, “all we can give them is a chance. We’re taking the shuttle.”  
  
She looked at the hulking craft. It wasn’t a model she was familiar with but she could see the bones of the frame that indicated a hyperdrive. “Not very heroic,” it was unkind and she half regretted even saying it, but she had just been transported halfway across the galaxy to a random rock and some part of her, a large part blamed him.  
  
“We saved them once, and whatever sent us here means we have bigger problems! We can’t sit here and let them burn us into the bedrock.” Luke was definitely rattled, but something Mara was beginning to recognize and accept as the Force told her there was more.  
  
“You’ve never been afraid of being under the guns of an ISD before, what’s different this time?”  
  
Luke looked away from her, at the ground beneath them and then back to the sky. “Leia.”  
  
Mara knew he loved his sister, she knew what it was like to grow up without family members and if she found a long lost brother she’d care for him too. But they really did have bigger immediate problems, their problems. “What about her? She was on Coruscant with Han and there are enough troops and fleet elements there to hold off the whole Remnant.”  
  
“That’s the thing, she’s not now.”  
  
“How could you possibly know that? We’re halfway across the galaxy?”  
  
Luke was clearly annoyed she was questioning him. He was probably used to his vague pronouncements being unopposed, but he answered anyways. “Coruscant is that way,” his arm was pointed at the ground, ”and Leia is over there somewhere and feels wrong. What’s more I can’t sense Jaina or Jacen.”  
  
“Could the same thing have happened to her?”  
  
“Maybe,” he grabbed a blaster from one of the fallen troopers, and then the man’s belt. She couldn’t help but stare, Luke Skywalker looting bodies fundamentally didn’t fit into her world, and he looked up, defensive. “What?” He started jogging towards the shuttle and she followed, the sand ice cold beneath her feet. “We don’t have any supplies past what we’ve got on us, rations and stims might save us.”  
  
“It’s not that, it’s just you doing it.” Luke seemed to get her point then and let out a sudden bark of laughter, breaking the mood that had overtaken him.  
  
“I spent most of my adult life with a bounty on my head greater than the GDP of most planets. I didn’t always have the luxury of expense accounts and Imperial supply depots.” They’d reached the shuttle, it was empty luckily. The crew must have been ordered out into the sudden rout the raid had become.  
  
Both Luke and Mara pulled up short after entering, the design of the interior was unfamiliar, far darker than the usual imperial motif. The confusion only held them for a second though, the urgency of the matter driving them. Luke settled into the pilot’s chair with an easy grace, like he was born there, and after a bare second of scanning the controls began flipping switches that set the shuttle humming. “See if you can get the sensors online.”  
  
It was far too sensible an order to refuse and Mara sat beside him, looking over the unfamiliar layout. It took two tries but she got the scopes up, just in time to see the Star Destroyer disappear. The faint sensation of danger in the Force vanished at the same time, Luke appeared momentarily puzzled.  
  
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a Star Destroyer leave orbit just because they found out I was in the same system. I’ll have to bring it up to Katarn next time I see him.”  
  
Mara ignored the non sequitur. “They must have thought you were here as the vanguard of more New Republic forces. Cutting their losses?” She didn’t like the theory any more than Luke did, but there wasn’t really a good reason. A wing of tie-fighters would have been more than enough to kill all of them, to say nothing of a bombing run.  
  
“We should probably tell the other regardless,” two buttons shut the craft down, some system in the rear spinning to halt with an odd vibration, “and if we have time I want to make sure there’s no hidden surprises aboard.”  
  
Exiting together, Mara didn’t really want to keep following Luke around but for the moment she had no better options, they nearly ran into the pilot.  
  
“The destroyer’s gone.”  
  
“We know.”  
Seeing Luke standing in the open the villagers who had been loading the landers approached him in a steadily growing mass. He waited patiently as they gathered, holding off until speaking just before questions would have started coming. “The Imperials left orbit, but whatever spurred them to attack here might still exist. You should all consider evacuating.” He didn’t use the force this time but they still obeyed, scattering until only the man in the flight suit was left.  
  
“They were here for you.” The pilot’s words drew both of their attentions. “If you are Luke Skywalker, they were looking for you.”  
  
That made no sense, but the pilot was still as sure as he’d been earlier. “I’m not exactly the most public person,” Luke was oddly willing to humor the man, “but if they were searching for me, there are plenty of better places to look.”  
  
“Well they found you, that’s better than anyone else has ever done.”  
  
Luke had at last lost his patience, Mara could feel his annoyance despite his visible expression remaining calm. “Why don’t you tell me what you mean by that?” The man stammered, and Luke held up his hand. “You can start by telling us who you are, and what you think you know about me.”  
  
“I’m Poe, Poe Dameron. I’m with the Resistance.”  
  
“You guys won you know, you can call yourself the Republic.” Mara’s interjection seemed to throw him, and Luke gave her a look that practically begged for her to be quiet. “Whatever, continue.”  
  
“The General sent me here to find a map, I found it, to you.”  
  
“And why would you need a map to find me?” The conversation felt horribly slow, they could have been speaking different languages.  
  
“Because you’ve been missing for twenty years?” Poe’s voice was hesitant but his words rang with truth, Luke nearly staggered as he looked back into the sky.  
  
“Impossible.” He didn’t believe it though, she could feel the doubt pouring off of him. “What happened after I vanished?”  
  
“The other Jedi were-”  
  
“Other Jedi?” there was still confusion in Luke, but a surge of hope dominated, “there’re others?”  
  
“There were.” Luke staggered, as if the words were a physical blow. Poe was speaking more slowly now, traces of fear wafting from him as he watched Luke warily. “The Knights of Ren killed them.”  
  
Luke didn’t appear ready to speak so Mara took control. “Knights of Ren? Like Kylo over there?”  
  
“He was their leader.”  
  
That made no sense, he’d been strong but he hadn’t been a match for Mara. Where could he have come from anyway? Palpatine wouldn’t have suffered another dark side order to exist and she knew Luke had destroyed all the remnants of the Inquisition he could find. Of course his Knights would have been fighting self trained Jedi, without Luke or anyone to guide them. Maybe a bunch of half trained Inquisitors and prophets who’d escaped or hidden from Luke were enough to destroy inexperienced Jedi. That must have been it.  
  
“Well he’s dead now.” It wasn’t the most compassionate thing Mara could say, but Luke straightened after she said it. He was still grieving, an absurd amount for people he’d never met but he was far more empathetic than she was.  
  
“You said you were with the Resistance, I presume you fight the Knights of Ren?” The hesitation was gone from Luke’s voice, he barely slowed for Poe’s nod. “Then my sister is involved with them. Take us to her.”  
  
“Right, right of course.” Luke spun sharply on his heel and made for the shuttle, his emotions still a maelstrom. “But we can’t go just yet! I need my droid!” Luke looked over his shoulder, his eyes dark and Poe nearly quailed, “I mean, I guess I can come back-”  
  
“No.” Something had caught Luke’s eye when he turned, nothing visible but Mara thought she could feel it. The sensation wasn’t quite like letting the force guide her in combat but something deeper, like listening to a song she’d never heard but still knowing the next note. Was this how Palpatine used the force, sitting and waiting feeling the galaxies vibrations like a spider in its web?  
  
As soon as the thought crossed her mind she knew just from watching Luke that it wasn’t. He had been grief stricken, he still was, but he was going to follow what she could only call the will of the Force. Palpatine would never have condescended to obeying anything, it wasn’t in his nature. He would have twisted it, pulled his web until whatever they were feeling was in his grasp.  
  
“We’ll get your droid in the morning, then we’ll visit my sister.”


End file.
